Erika Blanco

Erika Blanco (erikablancoviolin.com), a native of Charleston, SC, holds a bachelor’s degree in violin from Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and a master’s in violin performance with an emphasis in Suzuki pedagogy from the University of Minnesota. She began her private studies with Deborah Menick of the Ashley River Creative Arts School and continued with violinist and conductor Rex Conner of Charleston. During her time at the Blair School of Music, she studied with Blair String Quartet first violinist Christian Teal. She also worked alongside violinists Cornelia Heard, Carolyn Huebl, and Carol Smith; violists John Kochanowski and Kathryn Plummer; cellist Felix Wang; and pianist Amy Dorfman. Prior to receiving her degree, she studied under Stephen Panchaud, assistant concertmaster of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. She has performed in recitals and concerts all throughout the Southeast and Midwest as well as the United Kingdom. She has had the privilege of performing in masterclasses with violinists Alexander Kerr, former concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and current Professor of Violin at Indiana University; Soh-Hyun Park Altino, Professor of Violin at the University of Memphis; and Leanne League of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Erika has performed with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera under the baton of Robert Bernhardt and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra under David Stahl; she’s currently a member of the first violin section in the Quad City Symphony under Mark Russell Smith.

In addition to orchestra, Erika is a founding and performing member of Lux String Quartet (luxstringquartet.com), based in the Twin Cities, as well as the salsa band Charanga Tropical (charangatropical.com), which spent a week touring in Cuba summer 2015. Most recently, she earned her Master of Music in violin performance with an emphasis in Suzuki pedagogy under Mark Bjork of the University of Minnesota. During this time, she also interned with Kathy Wood and Julia Bartsch at the MacPhail Center for Music where she later fostered a studio. She now teaches violin at Her home studio.